"Twice Shy" by Seamus Heaney (poetry reading)

[thissong4you]

I love this...to hell with all the blather about this accent or that...

[Ozrielos]

Isn't it astonishing just how many metaphors he manages to cram into the poem? birds, poets (re. juvenilia), waters, "air", etc...all without sounding discordant or overstuffed. How does he do that?

[scifiwritir]

uhm.... interesting what you say about Americans reading poetry. Outside of poetry-readings, American accents are generally considered flat. I'm a poet and I've noticed how American poets tend to fall into an Americanized pattern of reading. Am Jamaican, myself, so I tend to sing when I speak. And when I read poetry I simply speak it. Oops, sorry for the ramble. Great reading. As usual.

[SBennett225]

You are a treasure, and agree with your statement. I abhor what Americans have done with the language. The news announced the US is proposing English be officially named as our language. I thought of you and wondered what you may have to offer, as I object and felt offended.

[trewknyght]

@SBennett225 --- Is it not interesting that you "abhor what Americans have done with the language" and yet the American accent is closer to the accent of the Elizabethan era, or we could say, the golden age of English literature.

[SpokenVerse]

@trewknyght Whenever did I say that I "abhor what americans have done with the language"? Are you quoting me? I certainly don't think so. All accents are different and interesting in their own way.

Why do you think that the American accent is closer to the Elizabethans? |Scholars think that a modern Yorkshire accent is closer because it gives full distinct value to the vowels, which modern English and American accents don't. American o's sound like a's, for instance.

[trewknyght]

@SpokenVerse --- No sir, I was quoting SBennett225.  As far as why I think the American accent to be closer to the Elizabethan, is for the reason of hearing it mentioned by John Barton and another gentleman from the RSC. Trevor Nunn has apparently proclaimed the same belief. I generally agree with your opinion on accents and although I am an American, I understand what you mean about the capital-letter sound.

[SpokenVerse]

@trewknyght I apologise, because I see that wasn't addressed to me. I don't have an educated BBC English accent myself, I'm Irish with father from Yorkshire, it's a working-class voice.

[belisariusorb]

The metre and the subject matter are so reminiscent of Yeats. Listening to you read it I'd swear it was him rather than Heaney.

[greyhoundfriend123]

I never realized there was that much difference. I'm American so of course I heard the words of the American reader much clearer. (Yes they do seem to shout) But he lost all feeling and emotion of your reading. Thank you!

[chopin65]

Yes. I agree about the difference in reading styles. I am a poet and writing a poem is a very different thing than reading one aloud. I feel naked when another person reads my poetry aloud. Once in a workshop a girl read a poem of mine. She read it beautifully. I could never read it as well as she read it. I was also instantly attracted to her. Before that moment I had always thought she was rather plain. But after that she was sex incarnate.

[thallassocracy]

Thank you for the link to the American reading - your animadversions on how Americans read British poetry also seemed to me very informative.

I suspect there is a genuine regional difference here; for a number of reasons I find English readers labour over W C Williams and Ed Dorn, much the way that Americans struggle with Fleur Adcock and Spike Hawkins.

I enjoy both sorts of poetry, and both sorts of reader - though not always on the same day.